At What Age Do Bats Make a Discernable Difference?

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Apr 16, 2013
1,113
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To keep going your best bet is an awesome hitter with a huge sweet spot/hot bat.

As an aside, the boys have a much different journey in terms of how bats impact their path to high level swing, IMO. At some point, the fields get huge, the bats go dead (Bbbcor or wood), the pitching gets wicked (not to say fastpitch pitching isn't a challenge) and you either sink or swim. I think that reality is what leads boy hitters to finding a high-level swing -- they search for it and find it or they simply fall out of the game. In fastpitch a wider variety of swings, including less-than-perfect, can still be very effective though there's a sink-swim element in fastpitch too -- probably high-level club or D1...

And this is one of the things I've mentioned many times over. A crappy swing can still be plenty effective in fast pitch. For one, just making contact and having blazing speed is one recipe for success. Two, girls never have to stop using bats that have more trampoline effect than your diving board at your friend's pool. My DD is still playing baseball, currently preparing for a 15u wood bat tournament on the national scene. In baseball, you simply have to have power in your swing and contact. Keeping that strength is what's making her so successful in fast pitch. Boys don't get the luxury girls get, IMO.
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
Like I said it's the Indian not the arrow/gun.....I'm guessing all the rifles were the same. Custer was out 'coached'.

He was definitely out coached. He split his team and was short players. To make things worse he left his composite gattling bats at home and opted for single shot wood bats. The Indians had more players and aluminum repeating bats.
 

rdbass

It wasn't me.
Jun 5, 2010
9,131
83
Not here.
Yeah, you made me learn something......
Lever-action Repeaters vs. Single-shot Breechloaders
Two hundred or more Lakota and Cheyenne combatants are known to have been armed with Henry, Winchester, or similar lever-action repeating rifles at the battle.[166][176] Virtually every trooper in the 7th Cavalry fought with the single-shot, breech-loading Springfield carbine and the Colt revolver.[177]

Historians have asked whether the repeating rifles conferred a distinct advantage on Sitting Bull's villagers that contributed to their victory over Custer's carbine-armed soldiers.[178]

Historian Michael L. Lawson offers a scenario based on archaeological collections at the "Henryville" site, which yielded plentiful Henry rifle cartridge casings from approximately 20 individual guns. Lawson speculates that, though less powerful than the Springfield carbines, the Henry repeaters provided a barrage of fire at a critical point, driving Lieutenant James Calhoun's L Company from Calhoun Hill and Finley Ridge, forcing them to flee in disarray back to Captain Myles Keogh's I Company, and leading to the disintegration of that wing of Custer's Battalion.[179]
There's more but I don't want to derail thread:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
1) Moving her up 2 inches and 2 ounces affects the swing speed the same as adding 4 oz. at the same length. No wonder her timing is off. You could have saved yourself some money and had her swing a heavier bat 10 swings, her new bat 10 swings and her old-lighter bat 10 swings each day 6 days a week. The swing speed would be back to what it was in 3-4 weeks and thus, the timing.

You're totally right, a deadly combination of impatience and GAS drove me to make a rash purchase. After two months of practice and a bit more than a dozen in-game at bats, DD is swinging the Ghost like a champ. She was 3-5 yesterday, hit every ball hard, and didn't swing and miss a single time.

Oh well. I guess it can't hurt to have a sold backup bat...
 

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